- EU pols fantasize about ban nudification apps following Grok moral panic
Source: Politico
“The European Commission is exploring a ban on artificial intelligence-powered apps that undress [sic] people online in the wake of abusive content generated through X’s Grok. European Parliament lawmakers last week launched a call — first reported by POLITICO — to ban apps and tools that allow users to generate fake intimate images of individuals without consent under the bloc’s flagship AI law.” [editor’s note: If it is a fake image, it is not an image of a real individual — and in what universe does creating an image of someone violate their rights anyway? It neither picks their pockets nor breaks their legs – TLK]
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-looks-ban-nudification-apps-under-blocs-ai-law
- GA: Libertarians Nominate Chase Oliver for Governor, Make Additional Endorsements
Source: Independent Political Report
“The Libertarian Party of Georgia has nominated Chase Oliver, the party’s 2024 presidential nominee, to run for governor in 2026. … In addition to candidate nominations, the party also conducted its regularly scheduled even-year leadership elections and selected its state delegation for the 2026 Libertarian National Convention, with the state receiving 31 available delegate seats this year. … The party further announced additional statewide nominations, including Allen Buckley for U.S. Senate and Ted Metz for secretary of state. It did not indicate whether it plans to field a candidate for lieutenant governor, which is elected separately from the gubernatorial race. In addition, the party shared its endorsement of Andrew Underwood for the special election in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, which it publicized on social media several days ahead of the convention.” (01/19/26)
- Russia: American sentenced to five years for illegally transporting weapon
Source: CBS News
“Russia has sentenced an American man to five years in prison for illegally transporting weapons, a court said Monday, noting that a rifle was found on his yacht after it docked in the port city of Sochi last June. Russian media said he smuggle[d] the weapons [sic] on his private yacht from July 2024 – June 2025. … According to the court, the man sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. It cited him as saying he’d met a Russian woman online and decided to visit her and that he didn’t know he was forbidden to keep a weapon on his yacht while it was docked in Russia.” (01/19/26)
- US Catholic cardinals urge Trump regime to embrace a moral compass in foreign policy
Source: News4Jax
“Three U.S. Catholic cardinals urged the Trump administration on Monday to use a moral compass in pursuing its foreign policy, saying U.S. military action in Venezuela, threats of acquiring Greenland and cuts in foreign aid risk bringing vast suffering instead of promoting peace. In a joint statement, Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago, Robert McElroy of Washington and Joseph Tobin of Newark, N.J., warned that without a moral vision, the current debate over Washington’s foreign policy was mired in ‘polarization, partisanship, and narrow economic and social interests.’ … The statement was unusual and marked the second time in as many months that members of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy have asserted their voice against a Trump administration many believe isn’t upholding the basic tenets of human dignity. In November, the entire U.S. conference of Catholic bishops condemned the administration’s mass deportation of migrants and ‘vilification’ of them in the public discourse.” (01/19/26)
- Hackers target Iran state TV satellite transmission to broadcast exiled crown prince
Source: ABC News
“Hackers disrupted Iranian state television satellite transmissions to air footage supporting the country’s exiled crown prince and calling on security forces to not ‘point your weapons at the people,’ online video showed early Monday, the latest disruption to follow nationwide protests in the country. … The footage aired Sunday night across multiple channels broadcast by satellite from Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, the country’s state broadcaster which has a monopoly on television and radio broadcasting. The video aired two clips of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, then included footage of security forces and others in what appeared to be Iranian police uniforms. It claimed without offering evidence others had ‘laid down their weapons and swore an oath of allegiance to the people.'” (01/19/26)
- Upgraded “Severe” Northern Lights Alert For 24 States Monday After Solar Flare
Source: Forbes
“The Northern Lights may be seen from as many as 24 U.S. states down to mid-latitudes — such as Oregon, Illinois and Pennsylvania — overnight on Monday, Jan. 19, through Tuesday, Jan. 20, according to a forecast by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center. … The forecast is for a ‘strong’ G3 or possibly a ‘severe’ G4 geomagnetic storm on NOAA’s five-level Space Weather Scale, as a ‘full halo CME’ — an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection — interacts with Earth’s magnetic field. … The CME, a cloud of charged particles ejected from the sun, left the sun on Sunday, Jan. 18, in the wake of a massive X1.9-class solar flare.” (01/19/26)
- Japan: Takaichi will dissolve parliament, call snap election
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has said she will dissolve parliament on Friday and call a general election to seek voter backing for her spending plans and other policies. The snap election announcement on Monday comes just three months into her tenure as the nation’s first female prime minister. … Calling an early election would allow her to capitalise on strong public support to tighten her grip on the governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and shore up her coalition’s fragile majority. The election will test voter appetite for higher spending at a time when the rising cost of living is the public’s top concern.” (01/19/26)
- Man abducted in Minnesota dies in ICE murder gang’s custody
Source: United Press International
“A Nicaraguan immigrant [abducted] earlier this month in the Trump administration’s crackdown targeting Minneapolis has died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody of an apparent suicide, officials said. Victor Manuel Diaz, 36, died Wednesday at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, Ice said Sunday in a statement. He is at least the sixth person whose death in ICE custody has been public reported by the agency so far this year. … Diaz was [abducted] by ICE [thugs] on Jan. 6 in Minneapolis where thousands of federal immigration law enforcement officers have been deployed for Operation Metro Surge.” (01/19/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/01/19/immigrant-dies-ICE-custody/1001768801388/
- Can the AI Folks Save Democracy?
Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker“The AI promoters have made grand promises about how AI will change everything and give us all happier, healthier lives. Maybe that will be proven right, but it’s fair to say they have not yet delivered. However, AI workers may have the power to do something very important in the present, not some distant or not so distant future. They can save democracy. Their route to saving democracy is by not doing AI, or at least not doing AI with their current employers.” (01/19/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/19/can-the-ai-folks-save-democracy/
- Trump was right about price controls, until he embraced them
Source: Washington Post
by Brian Albrecht“On the 2023 campaign trail, Vice President Kamala Harris’s first major economic speech included proposing a ban on so-called ‘price gouging.’ Jason Furman, a top economist in the Obama administration, said it was ‘not sensible policy.’ As economists across the political spectrum will tell you, capping prices would discourage new companies from ramping up supply, invariably creating shortages. Donald Trump called the plan ‘SOVIET Style price controls.’ He was right, if overly dramatic. Harris’s proposal ended with her campaign. President Trump’s flirtation with controlling markets is just getting started.” (01/19/26)
- US Economic Warfare Has Strangled Iran and Venezuela
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider“You can’t understand recent events without paying attention to America’s use of crippling sanctions.” (01/19/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/u-s-economic-warfare-has-strangled-iran-and-venezuela/
- Stranded in History
Source: Quillette
by Aaron Sarin“China’s over-reaction to a measured remark about Taiwan made by the Japanese prime minister is an attempt to move the Overton Window.” (01/19/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/01/19/stranded-in-history-china-japan-takaichi/
- Quantum Vibe, 01/19/26
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott BieserCartoon. (01/19/26)
- Trump’s Economic Belligerence is Driving Canada into China’s Arms
Source: Libertarian Institute
by José Niño“On January 16, 2026, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stood beside Chinese President Xi Jinping to announce what he called a landmark agreement that fundamentally restructured trade relations between the two nations. The deal slashed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles from 100% to 6.1% while China reduced levies on Canadian canola from 84% to approximately 15%. But the numbers themselves tell only part of the story. This agreement represents something far more consequential: the first major fracture in North American solidarity since World War II, driven not by ideological sympathy for Beijing, but by Washington’s increasingly erratic and aggressive behavior on the world stage.” (01/19/26)
- Donroe Doctrine: Catalyst for a US Strategic Contraction in the Indo-Pacific?
Source: Antiwar.com
by Harris Jenner“The capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on January 3, 2026, marked a watershed moment in international affairs. The operation’s significance lies not only in its brazen execution but in the geopolitical shockwave it triggered. Framed by President Donald Trump as a ‘law-enforcement’ strike against a ‘drug cartel’ leader, the move has since unleashed a cascade of global threats, alienated key allies, and signaled a profound shift in America’s role – from guarantor of a rules-based order to its primary disruptor. Analysts warn that this aggressive revival of Monroe Doctrine principles is precipitating an international credibility crisis, straining alliances, and may force a broad strategic contraction, including in the critical Indo-Pacific region.” (01/19/26)
- The Morality of a Mafia Boss
Source: Persuasion
by Francis Fukuyama“Although Donald Trump is a habitual liar about issues big and small, he is occasionally capable of surprising honesty. His statement to a group of New York Times reporters, quoted above, is one example. It contains two largely frank and correct assertions: first, that American international behavior is constrained by norms (i.e. ‘morality’) rather than law; and second, that the applicable norms are his personal ones, and not necessarily those shared by other nations. We should acknowledge the truth of the first, and be very frightened of the implications of the second.” (01/18/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-morality-of-a-mafia-boss
- The Donroe Doctrine is a Recipe for Two, Three … Many Iraqs
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid“It all went off without a hitch. Donald Trump’s huge, beautiful, helicopter coup of 2026. After two years of bungling pretty much everything from tariffs to the Epstein cover-up, our dayglow Caesar rolled the dice in Venezuela, and he appears to have pulled off a high-octane putsch straight out of a cheesy 80s action flick. … The perfect war crime. The problem however, aside from the fact that all of this is totally fucking illegal in every court of law on the planet, is that we’ve seen this blockbuster before and it doesn’t end the way it begins. Afterall, the Second Iraq War went off without a hitch too, until it didn’t and then it was too late.” (01/18/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-donroe-doctrine-is-recipe-for-two.html
- (Re)Imagining Liberty, episode 97
Source: (Re)Imagining Liberty
“The Right’s Mainstreaming of Antisemitism (w/ Elad Nehorai).” (01/19/26)
- EconTalk, 01/19/26
Source: EconTalk
“Nature, Nurture, and Identical Twins (with David Bessis).” (01/19/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/nature-nurture-and-identical-twins-with-david-bessis/
- TechTank, season 5, episode 35
Source: Brookings Institution
“Universities tackled digital inclusion — now they are accelerating AI use.” (01/19/26)
- Fountainhead Forum, episode 407
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Kyle Matovcik on how government regulations have made cars more expensive.” (01/18/26)
- The Climate Realism Show, episode 187
Source: Heartland Institute
“IT’S OVER! US Out of UN Climate Regime (Guest: Lucy Biggers).” (01/18/26)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/its-over-us-out-of-un-climate-regime-guest-lucy-biggers/